


Aftermath

by phantomthief_fee



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Character Death, I wanted to fuck some people up cause I was fucked up, Slight Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 21:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11677353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: So, this is a little out of date. I wrote it immediately after listening to episode 66. Basically, I wanted to wreck some feelings because I was bawling. I was literally bawling.





	Aftermath

Taako:

He wakes up and there’s this awful emptiness in his chest. Something’s missing, but he doesn’t know what it is and it’s killing him. He looks around, unsure why he expects someone else to be there with him. He’s sitting in a stagecoach, decorated to resemble a kitchen. He knows he’s never been here before. Is this supposed to be his home? He leaves the coach and finds Sizzle It Up With Taako painted on the side. He’s Taako, he knows that much. But what is he doing here? The last thing he remembers….He shakes his head, finding only static instead of anything useful. He pulls on the brim of his hat irritably. This is getting him nowhere.  
“Excuse me?” He turns to see a man approaching. Tall and broad, he appears to be half-orc. Despite his size, the man is timid, almost drawing in on himself as he moves closer to Taako.  
“Yeah?”  
“Are you Taako?”  
“What’s it to ya, my man?”  
“My name’s Sazed.” The man sticks his hand out. “I was told you were offering a job.” Taako shrugs slightly. If this stagecoach truly is his, then he must have some sort of cooking show. Oh well, he could use a driver.  
Those days he spends doing Sizzle It Up are some of the best days of his life. He loves hearing the crowds cheer for him. He loves being loved. But no matter how much fame he achieves, no matter how many fans he has, that feeling of emptiness never goes away. He constantly wakes up expecting to find someone other than Sazed laying beside him. When he cooks, he feels as though there should be someone beside him, cooking with him. He tried letting Sazed cook with him, but it’s not the same. It makes the feeling even worse, so he never lets Sazed do it again. This leads to Glamour Springs, although Taako doesn’t know at the time that it was Sazed who killed those people. When he runs, the deaths weigh heavy on his mind, joining the aching in his chest. Then he meets Magnus and Merle, and it’s like coming home. The ache in his chest lessens around them. Even though he won’t ever admit it, they mean more to him than he could ever say. He’s scared of losing them once he has them. He doesn’t want to go back to the way he felt before. When he sees the umbrella in the cave, held in the grasp of the skeletal figure in the crimson robe, he feels something different. He doesn’t know why, but when he sees the robe and the umbrella he feels….Well, it’s not quite sad, but not quite happy either. Having the umbrella with him makes him feel safe in a way he can’t explain. But seeing that figure….He feels more upset than he ever has before. So he puts it out of his mind, focusing only on his work and his friends. He meets Angus, Carey, Killian, Avi, Johan, Kravitz, Ren. He and his friends save the world time and time again. He lets himself be…happy. And then the Hunger finds them and he remembers again. He remembers all that he lost. He remembers Lup. Now he knows why seeing that skeleton made him so upset. That was his sister. His first response is to be angry, furious even, at Lucretia. She’d taken everything from him! But he doesn’t have time to dwell on what she’d done. Not now. The Hunger is upon them. 

.

Magnus:

Magnus wakes up in a house he doesn’t recognize, with nothing but the clothes on his back and some sparse furniture. Something is wrong, he knows that, but he doesn’t know what it is. Without thinking, he gets up and goes to a workbench. He takes down a block of wood and a knife, his hands going to work without the need to think about it. Before he knows it, a shape has begun to emerge. He smiles softly. It’s a duck. He knows it means something to him, but when he tries to remember what it is, there’s only static. This frustrates him even more. He knows something happened before he woke up in this house. He knows someone he cares about did something that made him very upset. He still has that lingering feeling of disappointment and betrayal. But all he can remember static. He carves duck after duck until he finds himself calm again. The ducks make him feel better, even if he doesn’t know why. People start coming by a few hours later. A lot of them like his ducks, so he sells them. Soon enough he has orders coming in for things that aren’t ducks. He doesn’t know if he can do it in the beginning. He’s not sure he knows how to make anything other than ducks. But he manages. He likes woodcarving. It calms him down.  
Eventually he gets invited to Hammer&Tongs, and that’s where he meets Julia. She’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, and when he enters the shop she’s hefting a block of wood onto her shoulder to put on the worktable. The block is almost as big as her, but she lifts it easily. Magnus falls in love in that second. As he gets to know her, he falls even more in love. She’s a no nonsense kind of woman with a sharp tongue who knows how to run a business. And she’s planning a rebellion. When Magnus arrives in Raven’s Roost, Julia and her father are planning a rebellion against a man called Governor Kalen. Magnus finds himself swept up in the revolt, standing at Julia’s side. The two of them plan attacks, coordinate fighters, and in the end drive Kalen out of Raven’s Roost for good. They know he’ll be back, but driving him out is a victory for all of them. They rejoice with marriage. It’s one of the happiest days in Magnus’ life that he can remember. Julia picks him up and carries him down the aisle after they say their vows. Everyone in the town comes to their wedding, wanting to celebrate their heroes. Then he leaves for the showcase, and that’s the last time he ever sees her. He remembers the last words he said to her.  
“I love you Jules.” He never forgets those words. It takes a long time for him to move on again, but he does. He devotes himself to helping people. He meets Taako, Merle, joins the Bureau. He kept his hope all this time, and being with them makes him feel as though his hope was justified. He can do even more good with the Bureau. But Refuge shakes his faith. He’s one of the red robes the Director warned them against. He gave the citizens the Temporal Chalice. His hope withers and dies, especially in Wonderland. He loses his youth, his body, his memory of the man who took his wife from him. But he remembers the red robed lich. He’s beginning to remember. Lucretia has been lying to them. Like Barry, Magnus is angry. As he splits the voidfish’s glass case and reclaims his body, he is angry. He drinks the ichor and remembers, and he is furious. The Hunger has arrived and he couldn’t stop it.

.

Merle:

Merle is happy for a long time. He meets Hecuba Roughridge and the two of them start a family. However, he quickly realizes that he and Hecuba aren’t right for each other. So…He walks away. He still pays child support payment, still visits his kids, but he doesn’t see Hecuba. He wanders a lot until he meets up with Taako and Magnus. He finds himself reminded of his kids when he’s with them, and he likes that. They’re nice kids. He enjoys being around them. The Bureau is something knew, but he takes it all in stride. He enjoys the company of Lucretia as well. She’s easy to talk to, very calm. She makes this ginko tea that helps with his memory when he’s had a bad day. There’s something familiar and calming about sitting with her and drinking tea. Then comes Wonderland. Wonderland is…Something different. It’s a test of his will. He’ll sacrifice his stamina, his eyes, but never his memories. He doesn’t know why, but the thought of losing his memories terrifies him. It’s only after Wonderland though that he starts to remember. They meet the lich and learn of the true nature of Barry Bluejeans. He learns Lucretia lied to them. She stole their memories. He remembers. Remembering hurts, because he realizes what Lucretia did to all of them, and he wishes he could have stopped it somehow. She shouldn’t have had to go through all this alone. She shouldn’t have tried to go it alone. But now he stands in the main hall, watching as the Hunger approaches. It’s time to have another talk with John. 

.

Davenport:

He doesn’t remember who he is or where he came from. All he has is his name, and Lucretia. He can remember things he’s already learned, but his past eludes him. He tries not to let it bother him. After all, thinking about it too much just causes his brain to be overcome with static. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to dwell on the subject. He works diligently under Lucretia. He watches Reclaimers come and go, watches person after person pass through the doors of the Bureau. He listens to Johan play his harp. Then comes Wonderland, and everything changes. The Tres Horny Boys come back sans Magnus. Then Taako and Merle break into Lucretia’s office along with a man Davenport swears he knows. They give him something that looks like the ichor of the voidfish and suddenly, he remembers. The first thing he feels is disappointed. Why would Lucretia do this to them? Why would she try to do this all by herself? There’s no time for contemplation though. The Hunger is here. 

.

Barry:

His body falls to the Earth and he floats out of it, surveying where he’s landed. He knows he has to find Lup, has to find some way to counteract whatever it is that Lucretia has done. He spends a long time looking for Lup, but no matter he goes, he can’t find her. He knows he can’t let that happen though. If he gives up, then he may never find her again. So he doesn’t give himself time to give up. He throws himself into finding a way to counteract Lucretia She’s put up a barrier to keep him out. It hurts, knowing she wants to keep him out so much. He remembers the days the two of them would hide away, their little human support group for everyone who wasn’t Magnus. He remembers both of them answering question after question from the nonhumans about whether things that Magnus did were Magnus things or human things. He had clung to that sense of camaraderie during their time on the ship. He watches the people who were once his friends as they go about their new lives, unaware of his presence. He watches them be taken to the Bureau, watches Lucretia draw them back into her fold. He knows she’s turning them against him. But still…he holds out hope that they’ll still listen. He sees the umbrella and knows Lup is with them. In Refuge, they tell him they don’t trust him. He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised. Taako doesn’t trust easily. Merle is old and tired. Magnus has forgotten the bond they had. It still hurts, seeing the looks in their eyes and knowing they don’t trust him. Wonderland comes and they finally begin to trust him. He looks out for them, opens their eyes to the truth. He gets his body back, drinks the ichor, and remembers. He’s angry, as he has been for a long time now. He wants to hate Lucretia, but no matter what he can’t hate her. So he holds on to his anger, even as the Hunger descends around them. 

.

Lup:

She’s in Wave Echo Cave when she feels Lucretia’s plan begin to take hold. She knows exactly what Lucretia was doing the moment she felt the touch of the voidfish. And the worst part? She understands. She understands why Lucretia would try to shut them out like this. But Lup can’t forget. Not now. She has mere minutes in which to preserve her memory. So she settles down in a corner of the cave, and goes into her umbrella. Immediately she feels the faint tingling subside. Her memories are safe now, but she’s trapped. She’s alone in this cave, with energy to feed off of. She stays in the umbrella for years, growing weaker and weaker with each passing day. She sustains herself with her love for Taako, for Barry, for everyone else she’s spent the past century with. The days begin to blur together. She misses her brother, she misses her lover, she misses her friends. Sometimes she thinks she can hear their voices, and that makes it hurt even more. Then, one day, she does hear their voices. They’re faint at first, but they’re there. She can feel the sound vibrating off the cave walls, and her heart soars. She’s finally going to be back with them! Then it drops again when she remembers. They won’t remember her. Even Taako, her brother, the one person she’d been able to count on her whole life. Even he wouldn’t remember her. Seeing Taako’s face almost brings her to tears. He looks older, but his ridiculous fashion sense is the same. Merle tries to pick her up first, but she isn’t have any of that. Only Taako is allowed to take her. Just being near him makes her feel like everything is going to be alright. She wishes she could warn them about the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. In the end what happens in Phandolin is the same thing she’s seen so many times before. All that’s left is that same black glass circle. She withdraws into the umbrella until they reach the base of the Bureau of Balance. It breaks her heart when she sees Lucretia and Davenport. Lucretia looks so old, so tired. And Davenport…Seeing her old captain reduced to a shell of his former self, unable to say anything but his name. She can’t look. She wonders briefly where Barry is. He can’t have gone along with Lucretia’s plan. He must have gone to lich form. But she doesn’t know where he is. So she waits and bides her time. She likes Angus a lot. He seems like a sweet kid, and she knows Taako likes him. When they meet Barry, she begs for her brother and her friends to trust him. But they don’t. Why would they? They don’t remember anything. She’s not too terribly fond of Kravitz in the beginning. He hunts liches and he tried to kill Taako. But then again, he’s a gigantic dork, so she supposes he’s someone she doesn’t have to worry about. The days begin to blur together again, but in a good way this time. She’s content being by her brother’s side for the moment. As long as she has him….As long as she has him, she’ll be okay. Then Wonderland comes, and know sees Magnus begin to remember. Barry forces them to listen to him. She starts to get her hopes up. They go back to the base and they remember. Taako remembers. But when their memories come back, so too does the Hunger.

.

Lucretia:

She tries to convince herself this whole time that she’s doing the right thing. That everyone is safer where they are. Wherever they are. But it’s so so hard to do it all alone. She finds herself longing for the days on the ship. She misses the companionship she had with the other members of IPRE. She can’t keep going by herself, so she creates the Bureau. She sees people come and go faster than she can keep track of. Davenport stays with her through everything, but it’s just not the same. It hurts to be around him, seeing him like that. She had to do this, she reminds herself. It’s necessary. She directs her employees, calm and in control. It feels so strange to be in charge after following Davenport’s orders for 100 years. But she can handle it. She can always handle it. When she sees Magnus, Merle, and Taako again, it’s almost like breathing a sigh of relief. Having them back is a weight off her shoulders. She can make sure they’re okay now. But there’s also the possibility that they’ll do some digging and discover the truth. And they do discover the truth. She should have known they would figure it out. This was her family, after all. They would never stop until they had the truth. She’s briefly destroyed when she hears of Magnus’ death, but seeing him burst through those doors eases her pain. She can see the anger in his eyes, though. The same anger she sees in Barry and Taako’s eyes. Merle just looks tired, which makes the whole thing worse. They all hate her for what she’s done. And now the Hunger has found them. It was all for nothing


End file.
